ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses all of the fundamentals of data gathering. Open-ended questions are ones the respondent answers in their own words. They are found more frequently when interviews are part of the data-gathering method and where the researcher is able to obtain more information by probing to clarify an answer. If open-ended questions are used in a quantitative study and statistically analyzed they have to be categorized and coded into specific groups that resemble the categories of a closed-ended question. Since the interviewer is able to provide explanations and ask for clarification of responses to open-ended questions, there is a reduction in the non-answered items and the “I do not know” answers often found on returned mailed surveys. Interviewers themselves become a variable affecting responses. The effect of the “interviewer characteristics” is a source of bias creates error with respect to responses and is more prevalent in face-to-face interviews.
